Indonesia trashes host India in Uber Cup ties
Indonesia trashes host India in Uber Cup ties
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia thrashed India 4-1 in the first match of the Thomas and Uber Cup qualifying round in New Delhi on Wednesday.
However, team manager Christian Hadinata expressed disappointment with the result, saying he was worried that if his team failed to improve its play they would have trouble overcoming Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei in the next match.
"If the team cannot increase its level of play tomorrow, we should not even speak of competing against South Korea and Japan. It might be difficult for us to win in the group against Hong Kong and Taipei.
"Overall, we won today. But looking at our athletes' performance, I'm really disappointed, particularly with our first singles player Lidya Djaelawidjaja, who was easily defeated by Aparna Popat of India," he told The Jakarta Post during a telephone interview.
Christian did not give the scores of the matches, saying it was too late in New Delhi and he was more concerned about his athletes' fitness for Thursday's match against Hong Kong.
"Third singles Yuli Marfuah also had to fight in a rubber set, but at least she tried really hard to win the match. It was completely different from Lidya's performance today. Even if Yuli lost the match, I wouldn't have been really upset," he said.
AFP reported the Thailand men created a mild flutter before going down to favorites China 4-1 in the Thomas Cup qualifying tournament.
In another Group X super-league tie, Hong Kong upset Chinese Taipei 3-2 to open up the race for the finals, to be played in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur in May.
Meanwhile, Korea blanked Thailand 5-0 and Japan routed Singapore by the same margin in the super-league matches of the women's Uber Cup qualifiers.
The women's super league has Indonesia, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and India in Group X, while Japan, Korea, Thailand and Singapore are in Group Y.
In Sofia, Wales' reward for its emphatic victories over the Czech Republic, Mexico and Kazakhstan, during which its Commonwealth champion Kelly Morgan conceded only four points, was a meeting with the third-seeded Swedish team. Bulgaria and Canada are also in their semifinal group.
The other Uber Cup teams to progress were, as expected, Scotland, Russia, the United States, Bulgaria and Switzerland, who go from their first-round groups into the semifinal round. But there were two upsets in the men's Thomas Cup competition.
Portugal came through in Group D to earn a spot in the semifinal group headed by the fourth-seeded Netherlands, thanks principally to a 3-2 win over the seeded Switzerland. (yan)